In the law enforcement setting, it is often desirable to record or otherwise document events surrounding the law enforcement vehicle and officer. Many law enforcement vehicles now include video systems for recording and displaying activity in and around the vehicle. The video systems are mounted in the vehicle and are operable to record and store video signals in an onboard memory. Immediate storage is desirable so as to document and forensically capture the events within and around the vehicle.
More recently, law enforcement officers have begun recording audio signals when the officer leaves the vehicle, such as during a traffic stop. The officer wears a small, wireless microphone on the officer's person. The wireless microphone is then operable to, in real time, transmit the audio signals to a base station located in the vehicle, such as a transceiver including onboard memory. In some systems, the transceiver is stored in the video system, and in other systems, it is a separate device located in the vehicle. Some base stations are operable to send control signals to the wireless microphone, and, as noted above, to receive audio signals, in the form of radio signals, from the wireless microphone.
The base stations are configured to provide a charging socket for the wireless microphone, an antenna for communicating with the microphone, connectors for inputting control lines and power to the microphone, and output lines for the audio signals received from the microphone. Although the base station is operable to receive from the microphone audio signals and record the signals in the base station's onboard memory, the base station is typically limited to only this functionality. If the law enforcement officer travels outside the range of the base station's transceiver, then any audio signals recorded by the microphone are not stored and are lost. This is extremely unfortunate in situations where crucial evidence is lost.
Accordingly, there is a need for a remote monitoring system that includes a wireless microphone operable to allow a user, such as a law enforcement officer, to travel outside a transmit range of a base station, such as the officer's vehicle, without fear of losing evidence recorded by the microphone. Additionally, there is a need for a multi-functional remote monitoring system having a remote monitoring transmitter operable to record numerous types of data, such as audio signals, video signals, still images, and other data, and selectively store the recorded data in an onboard memory and then transmit the data to a base station when the officer is within a transmit range. There is also a need for a multi-functional remote monitoring system operable to assist the user in performing his/her law enforcement duties when away from the officer's vehicle, so that the officer need not return to the vehicle to perform routine duties, such as verifying the authenticity of a driver's license and obtaining information for a holder of the license. Finally, there is need for a multi-functional remote monitoring system that presents full, bi-directional capabilities by allowing both the transmission and receipt of both audio and data signals from the remote monitoring transmitter and to the base station.